C-sections are fairly common for humans, but not so common at all for gorillas.
That’s what makes the birth of a baby western lowland gorilla at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo such a rare spectacle. According to NBC News, the newborn male was delivered via cesarean section after veterinarians determined his mother, a 29-year-old gorilla named Olympia, was experiencing complications that made a natural birth unlikely.
Olympia was already five days past her due date when an ultrasound showed decreased amniotic fluid and an incompletely dilated cervix, indicating the labor process wasn’t going well. Faced with the reality of potentially losing the mother and the baby, zoo veterinarians made the risky call to perform a C-section.
There have been fewer than a dozen gorilla C-sections performed worldwide, ever, making the procedure uncommon even among zoos with extensive veterinary experience and resources, like the Woodland Park Zoo itself, which had never performed one in its long 126-year history.
After the decision was made, the zoo assembled its crack team of veterinarians and volunteer obstetric specialists, all of whom normally perform C-sections on humans and not our primate cousins. But, hey, close enough, right?
The Gorilla Mom Had a Friend Care for Her Baby While She Recovered From Surgery
Apparently, it was, because the operation was successful, with the team delivering a healthy 5.4-pound baby boy, which wound up being a pound heavier than the average infant gorilla.
The story doesn’t end there. The surgery was successful, but then, as Olympia recovered, another gorilla named Jamani stepped up to take care of the newborn. It could be some lingering maternal instinct, as Jamani had recently given birth herself. In Olympia’s absence, Jamani has been nursing the newborn in addition to nursing her own baby. Zoo staff weren’t surprised by this, and in fact anticipated it and are allowing the hopefully temporary adoption to carry on as they keep a close eye on everyone involved.
Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered, so we need every one of them we can keep around. Populations have declined thanks to all the usual suspects: poaching, habitat loss, and disease.
The Woodland Park Zoo is one of many across the United States to participate in breeding programs designed to maintain genetic diversity to support the long-term health of the species, because it’s not just important that we increase their numbers but that we keep their populations genetically diverse to reduce the risk of developing debilitating health issues down the line.
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